


Brooklyn Walk-up, 1945

by worstpersoninyourfandom



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - World War II, Holocaust Mention, M/M, Medical Procedures, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, loving and supportive relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-02-07 15:16:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21460147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/worstpersoninyourfandom/pseuds/worstpersoninyourfandom
Summary: AU in which Steve and Bucky both survive the war, though Steve still receive the serum, and Bucky still loses his arm. They return to the states, and settle down, sharing a building with an elective cast of couples.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark, Loki/Thor
Comments: 1
Kudos: 23





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Missing those 2013 Avengers-as-found-family fics

The war ended. It ended, and Steve was there to see it. Literally there, as it made for a great press photo to have Captain America in the room while all the treaties were being signed and niceties were being had. Not that they let him see the paperwork, he was just a pretty face for the cameras. He didn’t care. They could have made him stand next to Hitler himself, resurrected in the Oval Office, and he wouldn’t have noticed. His whole being was vibrating with one thought: _Homehomehome._And tied up in that thought were thoughts of the one person he could call home: _BuckyBuckyBucky. _

His mate had been sent home from the front a year prior, dismissed from active duty to recover from losing his arm. It was fitting, that he left first, as he had got to the front a full 6 months before Steve. What wasn’t fitting was that somehow the same war that had made Steve _more_in every sense had left Bucky with significantly _less._But it was over now, and as Steve mounted the last few steps up to his apartment, he thought that he could live with the prospect of getting inside and never leaving again.

He almost got his wish. Bucky greeted him at the door in full force, nearly sending them both sprawling. “Sorry,” he said, “Still getting balanced here,” with a gesture to his stump. Steve kissed the stump, and then the neck closest to it, over their bond mark and up to his mate’s lips. Bucky’s scent was exquisite. Inhaling deeper, Steve realized his homecoming couldn’t have been better timed.

They spent Bucky’s heat in near-newlywed bliss. It might have even been better than their honeymoon. Though nothing could replicate that giddy feeling of first bonding, first belonging to another person, now they had heat for the apartment, real good food for their bellies, and Steve could go for more than 10 minutes without an asthma attack. In between bouts of coupling, they cooked, talked and caught up, or just basked in each other’s company. Bucky swore and flailed trying to chop veggies one handed, and Steve produced many barely-begun portraits of him, stymied when his mate’s antics became too preoccupying. It was the domestic bliss he was always wished for.

When Bucky’s heat was over, they ventured out in the world again. With the war over, Steve half-expected things to return to how they had been. It was a foolish thought. The city, the country was radically changed, not to mention their place in it. There was no rush to get a job now, what with two army pensions and the continued support from appearances and promotional work. So, they kept up their leisurely pace of life. Bucky had befriended one of their newer neighbors, and introduced Steve to his new drinking buddy. Thor was all Alpha, tall, muscular and jovial. He was a recent immigrant, having left Germany just before the war started. His mate, Loki, was the polar opposite. Though equally tall, he was thin and withdrawn. When they visited, Loki would stay quiet, only speaking to his husband in German.

“I feel like he’s making cracks at us,” Bucky grumbled after they left one night. _Reserved_is how some would describe Loki. “A cold bitch” is what Bucky chose.

Their group rounded out with the last apartment in the building, which was filled a month after Steve’s return. He was surprised it stood open that long, and even more surprised with who filled it. “Maybe everyone’s moving out of the city,” Bucky speculated, “so there’s not a lot of demand.” Still, it gladdened him to know that their landlord would rent to interracial couples. Though his squad had been diverse, it was in no means indicative of a global shift in attitudes. He would be naïve to think the war had changed that much.

Steve befriended the couple’s Alpha as he helped him carry a couch up to the apartment. After, they sat down on it. The man was of medium stature, with rich dark skin. His mate, from what Steve had seen, was smaller, whiter, and with a boundless energy that seemed well matched in his Alpha’s calm demeanor.

“I’m James,” his neighbor introduced himself, “my husband’s buying food now, his name’s Tony.” Steve shook the proffered hand.

“Steve Rodgers.”

“That’s where I know you! Damn, sharing a building with Captain America himself. I’m honored to meet you. You saved a lot of good guys, a lot of my friends, over there.”

They spent nearly two hours talking, about the war, about their new lives, their mates, the neighborhood. James’ rambunctious mate came home and sang as he burned something on the stove. Eventually, Bucky came looking for him, and pleasant goodbyes were had, with a promise of future merry-making.

“I’ve always wanted good neighbors,” Steve told Bucky that night, as they lay in bed. “Our kids and their kids can tear up the block together, like you and I did.”   
“Keep it up like you have been since you got back, and ‘our kids’ may be coming a lot sooner than you think,” Bucky laughed. Steve laughed along, then sobered.

“Would you want that?”

“What?”

“To try.”

“Try what?” Now he was just being intentionally obtuse.

“Try for a baby. It’s your body, I feel like it should ultimately be your choice.” Bucky hesitated, but only for a moment.

“You know, I do feel like its time. I’m not very keen on the whole squeezing a human out of myself part, but that’s down the line. I can get used to it.”

“Dr. Erkstein told me you forget about it. Birth, that is. So you want to have more. He told me your body tricks you.” Bucky scoffed.

“And how many kids does he have to show for it?”

“He had three. Or has, I suppose, somewhere out there.” He didn’t allow himself to consider the possibility that they hadn’t gotten out with their father.


	2. Chapter 2

Every Friday night found the entire building down at their local bar. Or almost the entire building. Thor mostly showed up alone, telling them Loki’s excuses. He would also be the first to leave, unwilling to leave his mate alone for long. Their relationship was a strange one, and Bucky itched to know more. What was Thor, bright and jovial, doing with Loki, subdued and sullen?

One night, his curiosity got the better of him.

“Have we told you how we met?” he asked the group, 4 pints in. They replied with excited refutations.

“Stevie here has always been too brave for his own good. He would be constantly getting into fights when we were kids.”

“Hey, I didn’t hit anyone who didn’t deserve it!”

“Still, you hit a lot of people. Mostly got hit though, as I recall.” Steve laughed at that, and pulled his mate closer.

“I was headed home from school, minding my own business, when I hear shouts in an alley. I go look, and what’d’ya know, it’s this tiny blond kid protecting a fucking kitten from a group of boys twice his size.”

“They were gonna hurt him!”

“So I have to step in, calm everyone down…”

“Throw a few punches yourself.”

“Calm everyone down and get that kid out of there!”

“And then I got made fun of for the rest of my life for letting an omega save my ass.”

“And then this omega continued to save your ass for the next twenty years!” Steve laughed and nodded at that.

“But the kitten?” Thor wanted to know, “Did you save him?”

“Yeah,” Steve replied, “Our first mission together was a success.”

“That’s a hellava lot cuter than how Tony and I met,” Rhodey joked. “I worked for his dad, up in Michigan, building cars.”

“Don’t say it like that, you weren’t a lineman, you were an engineer!” Tony looked proud of his mate.

“Well I wasn’t anything for long, after you got me fired.”

“Hey, not my fault no one can resist this ass.”

“Fired?” Steve asked.

“I’d always hang around the plant,” Tony elaborated, “Asking questions, getting in the way.”

“And I quickly realized this bratty omega son of the boss actually knew what he was talking about. So I let him sit with me, and we’d talk things through together,” Rhodey continued.

“Daddy didn’t like that at all, me hanging around the ‘wrong sort’,” Tony rolled his eyes. “But it was too late, we were already in loooove.” He drew out the word, before placing a kiss on his mate’s cheek.

“We eloped to Boston, so I could put him through school, before moving down here,” Rhodey concluded.

“And a warm welcome to you!” Bucky lifted his pint, and they all toasted. Now, they were getting somewhere. He looked to Thor expectantly, as did the rest of the group.

“I suppose you’d all like to know how I met my mate?” he asked. Only Steve had the decency to look away, while Tony nodded enthusiastically.

“It’s not a very nice story, but I will tell it anyway.”

In the dim bar, they crowded around. This was something worth listening to. Thor lit a pipe from his pocket, and puffed it a few times, getting his bearings.

“We are from Germany, you know,” he began, “But you don’t know that my father was a very important man there. I grew up in a castle, with servants, big parties, much wealth. My father, he did business, it doesn’t matter in what.” Bucky had a hard time picturing this factory worker with grease on his clothes having servants.

“What matters is that he had a man, Laufrey, in deep debt to him. Everyone in Germany was very poor then, and Laufrey, he couldn’t pay this debt. He had nothing to his name, not even a wife. But, what he did have was a very young omega child. Omega are not very common to us, so this was a great blessing to the man. But my father saw this and thought that he would very much like to have that child. He convinced the man it was what was best, to forgive the debt in exchange for his son. And so when I was ten Loki came to live with us.”

“Is he your brother, then?” Rhodey asked, “By law?”

“No, he was always destined to be my mate. A… how do you call it? Arranged marriage. We both knew from the start. Still, we did act more like brothers, playing and having a happy childhood together.” He had a small smile on his face as he spoke. “Until Loki reached 12, when I was in my 16thyear, and he had his first heat. My father wanted us to bond then, but Loki didn’t want to, and I listened to him. My father was not pleased, and that is where the trouble began.”

_The room was dark, save a few candles. The servants must have been instructed to set a romantic mood. Still, there was nothing romantic about the scene in front of him. Loki, so small, and so delicate, was curled naked on the bed, shaking hard enough to be seen. Thor approached him carefully, with loud steps to make his presence known. _

_“Loki...” he questioned, “are you ok?” Loki’s head snapped up, and he looked at him with wild eyes. The movement sent a waft of scent to Thor, and he almost choked on how good it smelled. Any lust, however, was mitigated by just how scared his would-be mate looked._

_“No, I’m… I feel… Please,” he stammered, “I don’t want.” Thor reached out a hand to soothe him, and Loki somehow both flinched from and leaned into the touch._

_“What do you need?”_

_“I don’t understand what happening,” Loki nearly sobbed, moving Thor quickly to his side. _

_“You’re in heat,” he told him, “Didn’t they explain?” Of course his father didn’t, probably just got a whiff of it and sent Loki to get prepared for bonding without a thought to explanation._

_“Do we... do we mate now?” Thor wasn’t even sure if Loki knew what that entailed._

_“Do you understand what being in heat means?” he dodged the actual question Loki had asked._

_“It means… I can get pregnant. And that I’m an adult now.” _

_‘He’s twelve,’ was all Thor could think._

_“Mating means having sex, and yes, that you could get pregnant. Do you want that?”_

_“No! I don’t want a baby. But you do smell so good, and…” he trailed off._

_“And what?” Thor coaxed._

_“And it felt really good when you touched me.” It was the barest of whispers. _

_Thor couldn’t stand to see best friend in such a state, but also couldn’t bond him without the others consent. Luckily, he had heard enough from the older kids at school, and knew there were plenty of things an alpha could do to relieve or ease an omega’s heat without fucking them. He helped Loki through his first heat with gentle touches and soothing words, never even taking his own clothes off._

“My father, he said, ‘what are you, impotent?’ but I told him Loki didn’t want a child yet. My mother saved us, saying ‘don’t you want your grandchild to have an educated mother? Let Loki finish primary school first.’”

Twelve years old, Jesus. Bucky had heard of Omegas getting pregnant from their first heat, despite the old wives’ tale. In Brooklyn in the 30s though, everyone waited until they were settled in jobs and houses before expanding the family. He figured Thor’s rich dad was probably the only person who thought waiting till after schooling was too long.

“It wasn’t until his third heat that we bonded. And it turned out,” He lowered his voice and looked conspiratorially around at them, “Loki really liked sex.”

_That summer, when they were 14 and 18, had been golden. Days were spent on their sprawling property, riding or walking with the hounds. They went apple-picking, and now Loki was old enough and strong enough to climb to the highest branches. In the long evening shadows, their kisses tasted of apples. And at night, in bed, Loki’s cunt tasted like apples too. _

_In the winter that followed, Loki started secondary school while Thor finished his last year. Both boys attended only the most prestigious private school. Thor excelled at writing and philosophy, while Loki excelled at everything. They had a generous holiday to ski in Switzerland after Christmas, though Thor detested the cold. _

_“Perhaps you should have been the Alpha,” he told Loki in bed one night, hands and feet warmed by hot coals._

_“Why is that?” Loki asked, with his feet out of the blankets. It was as if he didn’t feel the frost in the air._

_“I think you would have made a much better business man. To take over Father’s work.”_

_“Maybe so. I was thinking, I might even like it, which I know you never will.” His laugh was soothing._

_“I might just have to sit back, and let you run everything behind the scenes.”_

_“You know what they’ll say, letting your little omega boss you around.”_

_“Let them, maybe I like being bossed around.”_

_With that he turned, quick and sleek as a mink, until he straddled Thor’s hips._

_They didn’t get much skiing done on that holiday._

“Within a year, he was pregnant. We celebrated heartily, my father even took me to the bar for the first time, to buy me a drink.”

It sounded uplifting, but Steve knew the couple, knew they had no children. This story was headed for disaster.

“Four months in, he miscarried.” And there it was.

“We assumed then it was because he was too young, too small to carry to term. Loki was sad, but life went on. Another year passed, and another. We avoided pregnancy, giving him time to grow. Loki was glad for it, he didn’t wish to be a walking womb for the family line.” Thor got a far-off look in his eyes.

“I wish I had realized then, how wrong it was that my father saw him that way. I wish I had realized a lot of things about that time, but I was young and very, very stupid. I was preoccupied with my schooling, and my mate.”

Bucky nearly laughed. A lot of Germans were probably thinking the same thing about the 30s.

“When he was 17, and I 21, Loki fell pregnant again. I was just finishing business school, so the timing felt perfect. But he miscarried again, this time after only three months. I was heartbroken, but mostly glad my Loki was okay. Loki was…” he swallowed. “Loki did not take it as well. He fell into a deep depression. He wouldn’t leave his bed for days at a time, not even for meals. He began to waste away. I think it was, I’m not sure how you would say it, a nervous break through?”

_He sat outside the Omega’s room for hours, talking to him through door. _

_“Loki please come out, or at least talk to me. It doesn’t matter that we aren’t having …” he was going to say ‘baby,’ but realized the words might hurt too much. “That we aren’t pregnant. Even if you never get pregnant we can always adopt! And I’ll love you even if we never have children. Hell, I’d love you even if you took to murdering children.” He stopped himself at that, he was rambling._

_“Just, just know you are enough Loki, enough for me and just enough. And I love you, and I’ll be waiting right here for you.” _

_Odin didn’t share Thor’s sentiment, however. _

“My father began to think that he had been, basically, sold bad merchandise. So he went to find Laufrey and ask him why his son couldn’t give him a grandchild. Laufrey didn’t know, but guessed his late wife would. ‘Ask her family,’ my father said, and Laufrey told us he couldn’t. His wife had been Romani, a traveler, and her family had disowned her when she married him. I think his family did as well.”

Tony and Rhodey exchanged knowing looks, as if to say: ‘we know all about that.’

“But, besides Loki’s heritage, we learned nothing from him. Meanwhile, my mother had heard of a place, with very good doctors, who would help those like Loki work through the mental breakthrough. Fresh air in the mountains, and the talking cure that Herr Freud invented.”

He stopped to laugh bitterly.

“What a bunch of bullshit. I wish I had never heard of it. I wish I didn’t even know what a sanitarium was. I wish I had refused, as his husband, and said ‘don’t go, we will take care of you at home.’ But I thought it was good, so I convinced him to go. I thought it would help. And I went to find his mother’s family. I had heard they removed a gypsy camp from the outskirts of town. By then there was already the ghetto, but we did not worry about it. ‘Just a sign of the times, gone soon, the next election maybe,’ we said. But when I went looking, everyone was gone.”

_Walking through the streets sent chills down his spine. Empty houses, children’s toys laying abandoned on the sidewalk. Signs of life were there, but they were soon revealed to be no more than ghosts. A train whistle sounded in the distance, and Thor jumped at the sound. It reminded him the wolves howling in the Swiss mountains years before, a mournful sound._

_The only person who would talk to him was a shop keeper a few blocks from the ghetto’s entrance. _

_“They took out the trash last week. Good riddance, if you ask me, they were driving good paying customers away.”_

_“Would you know what happened to a family called Lauden?”_

_“Said they were all headed up North, why?”_

_“I’m looking for my husband’s mother’s family.”_

_“You mated one of them!? Have you no self respect!?” The man shut the shop door in his face. Mind racing, Thor headed home. The growing cloud of dread that had been forming in his chest all day suddenly broke. He couldn’t deny what was going on in his country any more, and he could no longer pretend that his family would be enough to protect his mate. They needed to leave. _

“The sanitarium shared the public opinion. They wouldn’t let us visit Loki. For his treatment, they told us, he couldn’t have any visitors. But, they weren’t doing any treatments, they were torturing. They strapped him in a chair, ran electric currents through his head. He still has dreams about it.” Thor paused, took a long drink from his pint, steeling himself for the next part of the story. Bucky shuddered at his words, remembering the time he spent captured by Hydra. There had been electric chairs there too, but at least they had the decency to call them torture implements.

“The public opinion was, of course, that the Romani were drain on the country, had too many babies, were dirty. They probably wanted to kill Loki right there, send him along with the rest of his family.” They all had to take a long drink after that.

“Instead, they stopped him continuing the line. They did a surgery, to keep him from having babies. At least they had the decency to give him gas when they carved out his womb. If I had been just a few days sooner…”

_But he had been too late. Unaware of the horrors his mate was enduring, Thor went first to get them visas, and secure passage on a ship bound for New York, and then to retrieve Loki. At first, they refused. It was only when he ranted and raged at them, threatening to get his father involved, that he was allowed to see his mate. Immediately, he knew why the sanitarium had been so keen to keep him away. Hunched in a chair by the window, Loki looked haunted. His eyes were unfocused, his hair hung limp around his face, and his skin was nearly as pale as the white gown he wore. Thor rushed to him, needing to touch, to know his mate was alright. He stopped himself at the last minute, reading the emptiness in Loki’s eyes. Instead, he knelt beside him, and placed a one large hand on a gowned leg. Loki flinched, as if struck, and finally reacted, turning his face towards Thor’s. He reached out one cold hand, and gently ran it down the side of his husband’s face._

_“Please Thor, save me.”_

“We had travel visas, to the US. I did not trust my father, he did not believe me when I told him of what the sanitarium had done to Loki, he trusted our laws and our government too much for his own good. So I told him we were going on a holiday, to take our mind off things. He gave us a little money for the trip, and that was the last time I saw him. I ask my mother to come with us, be she did not want to. I do not know what happened to them.” He paused again, this time to take a drag of his pipe.

“We took a ship to the states, and on board I learned the true horror of what happened to Loki’s body. They must have botched the surgery, because he was badly damaged, all scarred up inside. It makes his heats very painful, and many times he is in pain outside of heat. I do what I can to help him, but still, it is a bad situation.”

_In their cabin, tiny and low to save what money they had for their new lives, Loki alternated between laying exhausted in the narrow bed, throwing up in the shared bathroom, and begging for Thor’s knot._

_“Please,” he asked, all traces of his normal haughty dignity gone, “I need it to feel better.”_

_Thor always obliged, though it was less than arousing to fuck his mate while he was sobbing in pain. After coupling though, Loki was finally able to get some relief, and sleep. Thor brought him food, and water, and kept him warm. They spent the crossing entangled in each other, and soon arrived in the city. _

“I tell you this not as to make a big fuss, or to expose Loki’s privacy. Please do not mention the story to him, it will only upset him. It is still too raw. I just wanted you know where we come from, and why my mate may seem to be rude or mean, because I know you may sometimes think this of him.” Bucky had the decency to look sheepish, aware of the comments he had made.

“And I know that some of you fought in our country, and I think you saved many from the same fate as him, so thank you.” He let out a long breath.

“I just, I love my Loki, and I hope you all can help me to take care of him.” Thor settled back down in his chair, story complete. There was silence in the group, as they all took it in. Finally, Steve spoke.

“Thank you for sharing with us. I’m sure it is a terrible burden for both of you, and we will try our best to ease it.”

“Thank you,” Thor replied hoarsely, “And now I should return to my mate.”

_Loki is dozing when he returns, but stirs at the sound of the door. It’s cold, and he shivers while stretching._

_“How was the bar?” he asks, no hint of malice in his voice._

_“It was nice, they asked after you.”_

_“Hmm,” Loki makes a non-committal sound. Thor begins to undress, and prepare for bed._

_“What did you do tonight?”_

_“I read, mostly. I was missing my studies.”_

_“You should come with me next time. Practice your English talking to the neighbors.”_

_“I could. I should, its just… so much. The noise, the people…” he trails off._

_“Loki,” Thor says, sliding into bed behind him, “I’ll be right there, the whole time. I won’t even let go of your hand.”_

_“A bit overprotective?” Loki responds with a rare smile._

_“You’re worth it darling,” he kisses his mate’s neck, “and I’ll never again allow any harm to come to you.”_

_“Hmm.” This time Loki’s hum is more pleased. He reaches an arm behind him to pull Thor’s shaggy head closer to his, and kisses his cheek. _

_“I love you,” he whispers, as Thor turns the lamp off with a free hand._

_“And I you,” is the reply. _


End file.
